By JARROD POTTER
NOT even a bad day on the pedals can halt the stellar rise of Berwick cyclist Courtney Field.
Field, 17, admits she “had an off day” at the recently held Track National Championships, but she’s still on track to race for Australia on an international velodrome.
She finished third in the sprint – edged out by Brooke Tucker and Tahlay Christie – and it left an anxious wait for the young speedster to see if she’d still be picked for national duties.
Cycling Australia announced the team for the junior world championships last week and to everyone’s relief, on the list was Field, who now gets to prepare to race in Kazakhstan.
Earning selection, despite the obstacles along the way, Field was thrilled to get a second chance to race in the Australian colours and try to defend her women’s sprint world championship victory from last year’s competition in South Korea.
“I’m actually so happy… I was a bit worried that I wasn’t going to get picked,” Field said.
“I hadn’t won that race at the nationals, so I was a bit nervous about it, but everyone has a bad race every now and then and I’m glad that they took my other races into consideration.”
“I just had an off day I think – I had done really well in the other races.
“I’m not actually sure what events I’ll be picked for… but as I got second last year and won it at nationals this year, you never know.”
Coming in with an international title defence on her mind, Field admits the pressure is there, but she wants to harness it and use the expectation of success to drive her harder in training and on the track.
“It’s really exciting actually – it’s a lot of pressure though going into Worlds being reigning junior world champ, but it’s going to be a good experience to see all the girls coming through from all the different countries,” Field said.
“I think it keeps you on the ball – with training and stuff – as there are always other girls there.
“I’ve been through the whole experience before, so that will make it a lot easier – even though we’re travelling a lot further this year.”
She’s riding off the beaten path at the moment in rural Western Australia – training up for a second tilt at a junior rainbow jersey.
Field is targeting the Adelaide Grand Prix and Winter Track Series as important events leading up to her international return, as she heads to Astana, Kazakhstan in August for the UCI Junior Track World Championships.
